its me!!

This is in response to  An Open Letter to India’s Graduating Classes that was published in NYTimes India. Dear Indian Employers This is your new/current employee. We are MBAs, Engineers, B.Com’s and everything between them. We take the salary that you give and keep fighting to understand the peanut-ness of that. Many of us have landed on our first job, discussions around salaries and job titles are over, and we’re ready to contribute. Life is good – except that it’s not. Not for us, your employees, at least. Most of your assignments will be substandard, clerical, frustrating, white lies and with limited application of our skills. We too need to gear ourselves up for broken promises and unmet expectations. Today we regret to inform you that you are spoiled. You are spoiled by the “India growth story”; by an assumption that the Indian Education system is capable of producing talent that you companies will continue to exploit; that the growth will continue in double d

You get up the next morning (or afternoon) with no memories of the last night, or a bad headache, or both. You frantically search for your mobile phone as the memories return, and look at the ‘Sent Items’. After that you vow never to face her again. You get too liberal, and want to pay for all your friends. The friends don’t stop you. The next morning you vow never to take your wallet to the next party. You broke down your yearly resolution into more achievable monthly resolutions. The first one is to abstain from drinking and lead a simple, healthy and controlled life. With the monthly resolution gone for a SIX, you are reminded of:  So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin. [James 4:17 ESV] . You feel like a sinner. You had good relationship with your boss. The next time you meet her, you can’t figure out the reasons for unachievable deadlines and absence of erstwhile smiles. You look at your mobile again – bitterly. Your house is stinking

I am a PT teacher. Students love me. I let them be in my sessions. They feel like birds out of the cages; far from their Hitler-like teachers who are adamant to convert free-thinking humans to money-making asses by smothering them in the gas-chambers, popularly known as classes. When I came to this school, there was no culture of sports. The Principal told me that he wanted to ‘encourage’ it among the students. A committee was set up to find a solution to the problem. It came out with a novel idea which they shared with us in a meeting. The presenter told that Annual Sports Day was the best solution to start the sports-culture. “When do we act? We act only when there is a goal in-front of us”, the presenter spoke with enthusiasm as if he was the Chief Guest for the Independence Day parade. “So after immense efforts that we put in, researching about the psychology of human beings, and children in particular, we have come out with a solution that will motivate the students towards sp

Sameer used to wake up at 7.00 am every day, did the usual and got ready by 8.00 am. Then he walked to the bus-stop and took a bus to his office. He looked at people and a song started playing in his mind: Kas kar joota, kas kar belt; Khos ke andar apni shirt Manzil ko chali sawari; Kandhon pe zimmedari He never liked the song when he watched the movie, but never understood its repeated occurrence at the same time of the day. His route to the office had an air-port. Every day when he crossed it, a thought flashed in his mind: to get down at the airport and take a flight to any random destination of his choice. “To hell with the office and to hell with the job”, he fantasized. The bus never stopped there. While walking from the bus stop to the office, he looked at the children of the slum-dwellers: playing naked on the street. His love for the Classic English rose up: “O Freedom! Where art thou?” he thought. He wondered why he felt a bitter taste every day at this moment, espe

School Everyone was happy. There were celebrations all around. Neeti and Priyank were on the seventh heaven. They were proud parents of the moment. Their son was going to attend the first day of school tomorrow. Neeti insisted that they throw a small party to make the event memorable. Few close friends came. Everyone told Raghav how great he is going to feel at his new school. Raghav looked unconvinced. Everyone took turns to instruct Raghav, to which he nodded obediently and nervously. Priyank was looking at all this from a distance. He could clearly make out the anxiety and apprehension that his son was feeling. It was like a déjà vu for him. His son’s drawn face took him some 25 years back. *---*---* New dress, new books and new water-bottle thrilled Priyank and kept him busy for a few hours, but as the day passed and the street lamps turned on, a sinking feeling set in. The fear of unknown started to build up. Before this it had never occurred to him that he would leave his h

She couldn’t take her eyes off Sid. He was playing with his friends, and she was staring her from a distance. He was thinner than most of his friends, had a balding patch, and panted often while trying to exert. All this was a pleasant sight for her. A tear rolled down her cheek, but she couldn’t decide if it was because of the happy times that she had presently or for the most depressing times she faced a year ago. *-*-* “That’s not possible. This can’t happen to him. He is only 7 years old!”, Priya asked the Doctor with the ferocity of a tigress. Those who knew Priya would have been surprised at her outburst. She was meek and docile, never the one to raise her voice. But the threat to her son exposed a completely new side of her personality. She was shocked at the news. In fact shocked is an understatement to describe her feelings. She was flustered and angry – angry with the divinity, angry with the doctor, angry with the colour of the wall – angry with the world at large. Sid

After constantly remaining at 78 kg for more than 4 years, I joined MBA course where I crossed 90 kg for the first time in my life. My friends were worried and showed that often. I was rechristened – Ball. This was the best my friends could do to show their concern. There is always a scapegoat that you find for the things that you don’t want to take credit (discredit) of. For my obesity, my scapegoat was my inheritance. I always blamed the inflated state of my physique to the fatter side my family. I also thought that God was unfair to me; that when I exercised (which was minimal by the way!), the effects were slow to show on my body, however, when I ate, the result was overly evident. There is some reality in the above statements and my blames were not altogether incorrect or unreasonable. I WAS born in a “healthy” family and continued the legacy. However, now that the legacy has gone just a few extra steps ahead, I think I need to “deal” with it. When your parents weigh less than

I have a confession to make. To my father and my mother. Every time I have felt horrible, depressed, sad, betrayed, hopeless, frustrated, scared, unloved or over-worked, I am reminded of you both. I call you, message you, remember you and want to be with you. All the discussions we had, all the delicious dishes that you prepared, all the gifts that I received, all the comfort that I get run through my memory. I get sentimental and emotional, and long for your embrace. I am reminded of all the responsibilities that I have as a son, and I even feel the need to fulfill them. And then it happens. I get comfortable. Situation starts looking fine again. Hope comes in, fear moves out, growth takes place of frustration, friends are all around, love gets kinder and the Work-hours reduce. I yearn for fun and “meaning” of my life. It is OK to let go of a few responsibilities especially those related to you both. I start spicing up my life. I start taking you for granted. I forget to call y

Strange where motivation comes from! While a friend of mine did a 'Project - 365' which meant one photo a day for a whole year, I thought why not start small, with one picture a day for 26 days starting with 26 alphabets of the English language!! This project was long pending. I was not getting right/appropriate words which matched the photos. I started anyways. Around 4 months back I bought my camera. Started clicking and posting on FB. As is the case with every novice photographer, I too started seeing lines and angles everywhere. There was not one thing that was not clickable. The world became more beautiful and colorful. I became more attentive. Anything under the sun was a prospective subject for me. I took numerous photographs in a short span. I was lucky that a few of them were nice and interesting also. Excess of anything is bad. Guess I forgot to apply that formula on my photography. This was a good example of the law of diminishing marginal utility. A time came wh